BBRY: Reuters Previews Grim Investor Outlook Pending Annual Meeting

By Tiernan Ray

Reuters‘s Euan Rocha and Nadia Damounithis afternoon offer their curtain raiser to BlackBerry‘s (BBRY) annual meeting this coming Tuesday, writing that some investors say the smartphone maker must consider a sale of the company or individual parts.

The article quotes one John Goldsmith, a director of equity investments with Montrusco Bolton, which owns 1.5 million shares of BlackBerry, who claims the disappointing fiscal Q1 report from BlackBerry last Friday “were a quasi death knell for BlackBerry.”

Another fund manager, unnamed, tells the authors, “”I think the pieces were worth more than the whole a year or two ago, but that’s becoming less of a convincing argument and I am not sure it is true.”

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There are 16 comments

JULY 5, 2013 3:04 P.M.

TS Nelson wrote:

This is exactly the culture of greed and instant gratification that comes out of quantitative easing, i. e. printing money to drive stock market assets. Decent companies like BBRY who need time for their hard work to bear fruits, are being punished.

JULY 5, 2013 4:19 P.M.

Anonymous wrote:

reuters is a news wire, not an analyst firm. and their search for people to interview to support a thesis is questionable.

JULY 5, 2013 4:32 P.M.

manipulation wrote:

Agree with TS Nelson 1000%.

It was said before but want to repeat again and again if this company is worth nothing than why there is such an extensive coverage by media/analysts????????????????

JULY 5, 2013 4:36 P.M.

manipulation2 wrote:

If BBRY so bad don't invest in it.Period. My advice to you invest in heaven otherwise you will end up in hell.

JULY 5, 2013 5:19 P.M.

freddysrevng wrote:

I wonder why I'm not posting anymore; talking trash about "crapple" and bragging about the q10 bbry operating sytsem seem as though it was the second coming of Christ?

I hope nothing happened to me that prevents me from posting or something.

Naaaaaaah. Probably just writer's block.

Enter:BBankruptcy

Exit: Any shred of credibility bbry or I ever had.

JULY 5, 2013 5:26 P.M.

Where's Kurt Windibank? wrote:

He to bless the whole internet with his smugness about everything and anything bbry.

Scolding Tierman when he would print the truth about the losing bbry. He was right and everyone else was wrong. Always a big conspiracy was in play thatall of wallstreet was in on to badmouth bbry and keep it down.

I wonder if he and his ol freddy srevng are back to playing bingo at the their local elks club?

JULY 5, 2013 9:07 P.M.

Daniel wrote:

What was the writer of this article thinking ?

OMG ! BB.TO turned green for a bit. Better write some smear articles to knock it down again.

JULY 5, 2013 9:33 P.M.

Wet Paint wrote:

Why don't these losers sell their stock?

JULY 5, 2013 9:50 P.M.

Blackberry Lover wrote:

If these fund managers don't fully understand the business of companies they invest in, they should simply sell and get out. Let the shorts cover at their expenses and then watch the stock move up!

JULY 6, 2013 12:36 A.M.

@ TS Neslson wrote:

No. I don't think so. The problem is. BBRY and their investors are finding the competitive environment too punishing. They're no longer the no.1 smartphone maker w a mkt cap of $80 bin. This is an intensely curious situation. Even if youre not investing, shorting or trading on the bounces. Hmm. And after several years of playing catch up in producing BB10, expectations are not too high or unrealistic. And what's happened. They're not convincing enough consumers at all to comeback or switch. Their product offering and services are not compelling enough. There's no longer any miracles ahead nor will a hail Mary pass work even if it's successful because it just won't... We've been here before in other sectors when the field was just too crowded. Consumers cull the herd even if competition is good but some competitors are just not good enough to survive. Odd one out dude. Poor revenue poor future.

JULY 6, 2013 1:18 A.M.

Anonymous wrote:

Judging by Google Trends, after searching with numerous semantic variations re Blackberry etc. I think they're destroying their margins and asp while concentrating on the Indian market. That's my impression. Otherwise. Universally trending down. No? As for a solution. Perhaps a group of Indian investors might be interested in buying out BBRY... There are Indians all over the world. By taking over BBRY they would have a national tech brand and global distribution might not be too difficult because there are mom and pop Indian tech shops all over the world and they probably outnumber Chinese restaurants. But that'd be the end of BBRY being a premier or luxury brand. I know. It's an odd idea.

JULY 6, 2013 3:37 A.M.

Re YouTube... wrote:

And, re all things Blackberry on YouTube in the last 30 days. Curiosity is definitely there. Arguably there's more curiousity on YouTube re than in the past and yet Blackberry is not converting that curiosity into sales. Eh? WTF. Explain.

Re Apple's product cycle re iOS7, iPhone 5s/6, iPad, MB Air, iMac, MacPro. Platform, Apps and ecoSystem matter. So. In view of that. Why would anyone want a BB10 device? Big discount losses a coming? Anything going to revitalize the negative perception of? Certainly the last ER is the worst commercial they could run. Surprised Samsung hasn't posted BBRY last ER on a flag to fly around the world. Would be par for the course.

JULY 6, 2013 10:22 P.M.

TS Nelson wrote:

This is the first quarter of BB10 sales, a mere 12 weeks. We don't have enough data to support any judgement.

JULY 7, 2013 2:30 A.M.

@ TS Nelson wrote:

Sure we do. It continues to trend down on Google Trends. So say no more. Say no more.

JULY 7, 2013 7:25 A.M.

Anonymous wrote:

As an anonymous investor (preparing to take a short position)The other thing not being said is that Blackberry continues to shed its talent. Some were laid off as recent as this summer. All the while the new soul diva BlackBerry hired, uses Iphone. What a joke this Heins is with the little poopsy tootsy accent. Given the language of the latest report this is an excellent time to take short position. The decisions by the board of directors, Heins, Tear, Raw, executives and lower level directors and managers. Very stupid ideas from these people. Time to study this real hard to get picture of how the stock moves. I believe over time it will trend down. Catalyst for upside will be any possible sale so look out for that. This post is my opinion about the stock and when to get in on short or long side.

JULY 8, 2013 3:40 P.M.

old indie wrote:

People who know what they are talking about vs. BB employees trying to keep the stock price up so they can dump vs. the shorts.

Fun to watch. Me? I never buy fallen Tech Angels. A true sucker's bet. Rare exception is Apple, and there is no Jobs at BB now, that is for sure.

About Tech Trader Daily

Tech Trader Daily is a blog on technology investing written by Barron’s veteran Tiernan Ray. The blog provides news, analysis and original reporting on events important to investors in software, hardware, the Internet, telecommunications and related fields. Comments and tips can be sent to: techtraderdaily@barrons.com.